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A portrait of slain separatist leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko hangs outside the Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theatre on September 2.
A portrait of slain separatist leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko hangs outside the Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theatre on September 2.

Live Blog: Ukraine In Crisis (Archive)

-- EDITOR'S NOTE: We have started a new Ukraine Live Blog as of September 3, 2018. You can find it here.

-- Tens of thousands of people gathered on September 2 in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine to mourn a top rebel leader who was recently killed in a bomb attack.

-- Prominent Ukrainian historian Mykola Shityuk has been found dead in his home city of Mykolaiv, police said on September 2.​

-- Ukraine says it has imprisoned the man it accused of being recruited by Russia’s secret services to organize a murder plot against self-exiled Russian reporter and Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko.

-- Ukraine and Russia are trading blame for the killing of a top separatist leader in eastern Ukraine.

-- Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the head of the head of the breakaway separatist entity known as the Donetsk People’s Republic, was killed in an explosion at a cafe in Donetsk on August 31.

-- The United States is ready to widen arms supplies to Ukraine to help build up the country's naval and air defense forces in the face of continuing Russian support for eastern separatists, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine told The Guardian.

-- The spiritual head of the worldwide Orthodox Church in Istanbul has hosted Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill for talks on Ukraine's bid to split from the Russian church, a move strongly opposed by Moscow.

*Time stamps on the blog refer to local time in Ukraine

14:23 26.12.2017

Hmm

14:21 26.12.2017

14:12 26.12.2017

13:14 26.12.2017

Here's a Saakashvili update from our news desk:

Despite Summons, Saakashvili Refuses To Be Questioned

Ukrainian opposition figure Mikheil Saakashvili in a Kyiv courtroom earlier this month
Ukrainian opposition figure Mikheil Saakashvili in a Kyiv courtroom earlier this month

Mikheil Saakashvili, the leader of Ukraine's Movement of New Forces party and former president of Georgia, has reportedly refused to appear for questioning at the Main Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), despite being summoned for an appearance there on December 26.

Saakashvili's lawyer, Pavlo Bohomazov, initially said Saakashvili was planning to appear for questioning.

But shortly after the scheduled meeting at 11 a.m. local time, another Saakashvili lawyer, Ruslan Chornolutsky, told journalists that the former governor of Ukraine's Odesa region would "not enter the investigator's office for investigative procedures today."

Chornolutsky said Saakashvili received a summons to be questioned and to submit samples of his voice for analysis on December 26.

He said that those were two different investigative procedures, which cannot be conducted simultaneously.

"We have already asked for these two investigative procedures to be separated," Chornolutsky said. "We have submitted such a motion."

On the eve of the scheduled meeting, Saakashvili expressed concerns that Ukrainian authorities were trying to deny him temporary protection status and "create conditions" for his "expulsion from the country."

That hearing was scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. local time.

Read more here

11:59 26.12.2017

11:59 26.12.2017

This is the angle that Kremlin-funded outlet RT is taking on the supply of lethal weapons to Ukraine (no surprises here):

11:54 26.12.2017

11:52 26.12.2017

11:51 26.12.2017

11:48 26.12.2017

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